

150 



Breeding and Rearing Swine, 



Vol. IV. 



i 



and strength, he will sewn by severe service 

 be impotent, and consequently only the first 

 few sows may be impregnated. The sows 

 y/'\\\ in all probability continue to come in 

 season, and the boar still reducing every day, 

 and yet his lasciviousness keeps him incapa- 

 ble of bemg fruitful. Hence, I found by ex- 

 perience, my sows were unproductive, some 

 having two or three pigs, and they coming in 

 much later than 1 expected, consequently I 

 would recommend one boar to every ten 

 sows, where you want all your pigs of one 

 age and of good size. Of all the animal 

 creation that I have any acquaintance with, 

 the boar and ram will loose their juices faster 

 from gendering. I will aver that a boar may 

 be in good health and high condition of ani- 

 mal spirits, and just let him with a lot of 

 sows twenty or thirty in number, and in four 

 weeks time he will lose one hundred pounds 

 weight, and you may feed him with what 

 corn lie may want to eat. 



My young maiden sows I hardly ever per- 

 mit to be served but one time ; my reason for 

 this is that the old boars are too heavy and 

 strong for them. I disapprove under any 

 circumstances, of letting the male to a sow 

 more than once when he is in good order. I 

 recommend an aged male to maiden sows in 

 all cases, to secure large, sprightly, and well 

 formed pigs, and more prolific. 1 have kept 

 a true ajccount heretofore, of this practice. I 

 let a lot of seven sows run with tlie boar un- 

 til they have done with him, and kept their 

 several dates. I also had a lot of young and 

 old sows. I let the boar out of his pound and 

 let him serve them once a piece, and kept 

 their several dates. There was but one out 

 of the six that did not stand, and out of the 

 lot of seven there were two which did not 

 stand. The lot of six produced trom six to 

 eleven pigs apiece, and the lot of seven did not 

 produce as many pigs by four as the six. I 

 kept both lots in the same manner with care, 

 and they answered their several dates in lit- 

 tering, the period of gestation being about 

 sixteen weeks. If you stint your sows to the 

 boar only one time and you keep her in a lot 

 to prevent other males, and she stands, she 

 will be very sure to bring forth in from 111 

 to 113 days; but if permitted to run with the 

 boar when she is in season until she is done, 

 I have recorded a number of instances and 

 dates where they have varied from the set 

 time of 111 to 116 days. This convinces me 

 of the injury the boar sustains, and the sows 

 receive no benefit. From his masterly 

 strength she is constrained to do what nature 

 docs rot desire, therefore Ihe great discre- 

 pancy in the supposed period of gestation. 



Particular fit'diiifi'. — I have always given 

 my sows dish-water slops, when practi^;^bl(^ 

 through the winter, ia a trough, suliiciently 



long, that they may all feed out of it without 

 scutfling, with a pole confined on each end 

 of the trough, and also to keep their feet out 

 of the slop and keep them from fighting and 

 slipping over the rotundity of the trough. 

 The ammonia in the dish-water will suit im- 

 pregnated sows much better than strong salt. 

 I had twelve head last winter in the severest 

 weather and deep snows ; I never gave but 

 three ears of corn to each head, morning and 

 evening, and when the snow was off, my feed 

 was from one to two ears to each head, mom* 

 ing and evening. 



Treatment. — When in some two or three 

 days of their littering, I always separate my 

 sows and put them in sheds or houses by 

 themselves ; I prepare leaves for their beds, 

 if practicable, as I prefer them to straw or 

 hay ; they are light and warm, and there is 

 no danger of the young pigs getting en- 

 tangled, as they do sometimes in straw; 

 being very weak, they die before they get to 

 the teat; now whilst confined before litter- 

 ing, give them two ears of corn mornuig and 

 evening, and a plenty of water until theyl 

 have farrowed. After they have littered,! 

 give nothing but water for twenty-four hours; 

 then give two or three ears of corn night and 

 morning, for some four or five days — neverj 

 give rich slops for some four or five days be-i 

 tore littering, for they are not in good health,| 

 but feverish, &c., and rich food will increasfl 

 the fever and swell the teats, so that the pigsj 

 cannot draw them, more especially in warm 

 weather. 



I have known instances of the milk entire-i 

 ly drying up from fever, and the pigs die foi| 

 the want of it. Our affection frequently takcsi 

 precedent of reason, by giving in to supposeci 

 calls of nature, therefore many feed theiii 

 sows on the richest food immediately aftei; 

 littering. It also produces that very injurii 

 ous disease among the pigs — scours. 



Treatment after the piiis are some five m 

 ten days old. — The sows should be kept sepai 

 rate from each other at least ten days at\c:i 

 littering, to secure the pigs' affections to thei 

 own mother, and to prevent them in larg* 

 herds of pigs from this evil, which is .so com 

 mon when the sows are permitted to run am. 

 litter together. The strong pigs will suckl< 

 all the sows, for their superior strength wil 

 force the weaker and younger from theii 

 teats, and consequently soon become puny am 

 weak, which if kept as I have described, ha 

 a good bearing to prevent them. I can sa; 

 from experience, that every pig will liav' 

 their own teat, and regularly as the sow calL 

 or permits them to suckle, they will returij 

 to their own, unless forced away by th 

 strono-er. My practice is, after they havi 

 arrived at the asre before mentioned, to pn 

 them in a lot oi' grass sutficient lor thei. 



.Jk 



